The International Francophone Press Union (french: Union internationale de la presse francophone, UPF) is a

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

association of

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

s. Founded in 1950, it is the world's oldest Francophone organisation, and has more than 3,000 members in 110 countries.

History

The association was founded in 1950 in

Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

on the initiative of

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

journalist Émile-Dostaler O'Leary, who served as the organisation's first president. It formally changed its name from ''Union internationale des journalistes et de la presse de langue français'' ( en, International Union of French-language Journalists and Press) to ''Union internationale de la presse francophone'' on October 24, 2001, at its 33rd meeting in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

Activities

The UPF's aim is to advance cooperation between the Francophone media of the world. Although initially a venue for French-speaking journalists to convene, over time the UPF became a professional union. It is an

international nongovernmental organisation An international non-governmental organization (INGO) is an organization which is independent of government involvement and extends the concept of a non-governmental organization (NGO) to an international scope. NGOs are independent of government ...

recognised by the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

La Francophonie LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

, and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

, among others.

Prix de la libre expression

In 1991, the association (at the time still known as the UIJPLF), in cooperation with La Francophonie, created the ''Prix de la libre expression'' ( en, Prize for Freedom of Expression). The prize is awarded annually to journalists who remain

objective Objective may refer to: * Objective (optics), an element in a camera or microscope * ''The Objective'', a 2008 science fiction horror film * Objective pronoun, a personal pronoun that is used as a grammatical object * Objective Productions, a Brit ...

despite harassment or persecution. Past recipients of the prize include

Michel Auger Michel Auger (27 June 1944 – 31 October 2020) was a Canadian journalist. He was a crime reporter with ''Le Journal de Montréal'', and he spent 42 years in journalism, starting out as a freelancer before becoming well known for covering organ ...

(2000), ''

Le Rénovateur ''Le Rénovateur'' is the only French language, French-language newspaper in the Lao PDR (Laos). It is published weekly by the ''Lao Press in Foreign Languages'', which is a specialised agency of the Ministry of Information and Culture It was sta ...

'' (2003), and

May Chidiac May Chidiac ( ar, مي شدياق) (born 20 June 1963) is a journalist and former Lebanese Minister of State for Administrative Development. Chidiac is a former television journalist at the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) and one of t ...

(2005).

Leadership

As of August 2008, Alfred Dan Moussa of

Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

is the president of the UPF.

References

External links